He wrote from the view-point of the politician,--not of the moralist.

What is good politics may be bad morals, and in fact, by a strange fatality, where morals and politics clash, the latter generally gets the upper hand.

And will anyone contend that the principles set forth by Machiavelli in his _Prince_ or his _Discourses_ have entirely perished from the earth?
Has diplomacy been entirely stripped of fraud and duplicity?
Let anyone read the famous eighteenth chapter of _The Prince_: "In what Manner Princes should keep their Faith," and he will be convinced that what was true nearly four hundred years ago, is quite as true to-day.
Of the remaining works of Machiavelli the most important is the _History of Florence_ written between 1521 and 1525, and dedicated to Clement VII.

The first book is merely a rapid review of the Middle Ages, the history of Florence beginning with Book II.

Machiavelli's method has been censured for adhering at times too closely to the chroniclers like Villani, Cambi, and Giovanni Cavalcanti, and at others rejecting their testimony without apparent reason, while in its details the authority of his _History_ is often questionable.